This week in Memphis history: April 18-24

By Bill Dries

1984: On the front page of The Daily News: Studebaker’s was about to open in the Overton Square space that had been Playhouse on the Square. The Dallas-based chain of diners featured a Memphis version that was heavy on the neon and Elvis and 1950s nostalgia decor with waitresses in poodle skirts or cheerleader outfits and doormen with white sports coats and carnations.

1974: Among the new privilege license listings, Ollie’s Trolley at 615 S. Mendenhall, north of Poplar Avenue. The fast food chain with hamburgers as its marquee offering was expanding nationally through franchises. And when the Mid-America Mall opened two years later on Main Street Memphis between Exchange Street and what was then McCall Street, now Peabody Place, an Ollie’s Trolley opened in the Civic Center Plaza. It was west of the wall that separated the then police headquarters building from the pedestrian mall. The chain endured for several years but was long gone by the time the real trolleys returned to Main Street in the 1990s.

1944: The Shelby County Quarterly Court set expenditures for Shelby County Schools at $943,848 with county property taxes making up $527,302 of that with another $147,461 from delinquent taxes and $26,000 from poll taxes. The court, which later became the Shelby County Commission, also issued a certificate of good moral character for Frances Loring, a Vanderbilt University Law School student who planned to become an attorney the next summer.